Her heart seized in her chest as her fingers moved toward the butterfly charm of her necklace. Stumbling backward, she fought the chaotic thoughts racing through her mind.
She honed in on the tattoo on his chest.
A butterfly identical to the pendant she wore on her necklace.
“What’s that?” She forced the words from her mouth.
Marvin looked down at his chest, then reached for the edges of his shirt to open it wider. His fingers ran across the surface of the tattoo.
“Just something I got in Tiverton. It made me feel closer to you,” he said.
“Ti-Ti-Tiverton?” She couldn’t breathe.
“I remember the day you got your necklace. Five years after our last time together, right here on my family’s property. You never took it off. Every video you posted, it was always around your neck. I wanted one around my neck, too. But jewelry isn’t allowed in a maximum security prison. I had to settle for the next best thing.”
“You’re not Marvin.” The words sputtered from her lips.
“I told you that you would always be mine.” He took another step toward her. “ Now, do you believe me?”
“Damian …”
Chapter53
“No, this is wrong. You died. I watched you die in that hospital room!” Gabrielle stood frozen with terror.
“It only looked like I was dead because that’s what I wanted,” Damian admitted.
“How?” Panic sliced through her as familiar eyes stared back at her.
This wasn’t a joke.
Damian Hester was very much alive.
“Gangs are a dirty business. One you learn to leverage to your advantage when trapped behind bars at Tiverton,” Damian said, staring away from her. “I never picked sides. Never joined one. But I did things for them. Favors so that when I needed one in return, they would help me.”
“Favors,” Gabrielle choked the word out. Paralyzing fear gripped her as her worst nightmare came true. “Is that what faking your death is? A favor from a gang.”
“I suffered months in solitary for making it look like I’d killed gang members they wanted to break out of jail. But I never had to kill. The gang members would take a drug cocktail that simulated death. Dead inmates get out of Tiverton quickly. I didn’t know how, but the dead gang members would wake up in a few days and be back on the streets with new identities,” Damian said, his eyes dancing. “I knew that every time I helped Quattro, I built credit with the gang. Credits I could use for them to help me get free the same way.”
“You made your move when you found out I was returning to the Palmchat Islands to testify at your parole hearing. That’s when you asked them to fake your death.” Dizziness overwhelmed Gabrielle. She stumbled backward and slumped down onto the chair.
“I wanted to be with you and make it safe for you to be with me. That could only happen if the world thought I was dead,” Damian said, his eyes lighting up as he sat at the table across from Gabrielle. “It was brilliant. Quattro smuggled drugs to me in the back of a few dozen cell phones. The plan to get out of Tiverton was in code in texts. I had drugs to mimic the symptoms of a heart attack and stroke. Prison medics rushed me to the Rakestraw Blake Center. Quattro has doctors there on their payroll. They gave me a time-released version of the drugs that simulated death. I flatlined watching you. It was the perfect way to die.” He raised his hands in air quotes. Damian smiled brightly at her. “I lay in the morgue with other corpses just to have this moment with you. To look at your beautiful face.” He stretched a hand toward her. Gabrielle flinched and jerked back. “It was worth it.”
“What about Marvin? Was he in on this? Where is he?” Gabrielle asked, hoping that the twin who’d loathed her for years might be the one to rescue her from Damian.
“I killed him for you,” Damian said.
“You … what?” She covered her mouth with her hands as tears pricked her eyes. “You killed your brother?”
“He hated you, and I grew to hate him for that. He’d visit me and call you a bitch and a slut and a whore. Told me it was your fault that I was stuck in prison. But it wasn’t. I confessed because I love you. I wasn’t going to lie about what happened between us. I cherish every moment we ever shared, the good and the bad. As soon as I was free, I had to make him pay for hating you.”
“But … but … but we talked about that. He apologized—”
“I apologized to you on his behalf,” Damian said, leaning closer to her. “That was me. I cared enough to check on you in the hospital, not him. He was dead by then. Plus, I wasn’t sure if I’d given you too much propofol, so I needed to make sure you were okay.”
“Propofol. You were the one who attacked me in the safe house? You stabbed my bodyguard?”
“Attacked is such a strong word. I was upset after I read your journal. Some other man had found his way into your heart. You couldn’t love me if you loved him, so I had to get rid of him.” Damian nodded as if it was the most reasonable reaction in the world. “Now there’s no one to stand in the way of us being together.”
